Shower
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: Bella knows that Edward won't touch her again, but she's not going to give up. Using her feather matted hair and the fact that she's a danger magnet as an excuse, she convinces Edward to shower with her. Edward sets rules, but all is fair in love and war.


"_This isn't going to work," I sighed after a minute. "It's all dried in. I'm going to have to try to wash it out." I turned around, wrapping my arms around his cool waist. "Do you want to help me?"_

_"I'd better find some food for you," he said in a quiet voice, and he gently unwound my arms. (Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer pg. 96)_

**Shower**

I knew that he would retreat any moment; I did the only thing I could: I played the safety card. "Edward!" I gasped; hoping he would hear me before he bolted off. He stayed still, but made no further acknowledgement that he'd heard me; he continued to face away from me. "Do you remember our first summer together when we went swimming in your pool?"

He did turn to face me now. Curiosity of my thoughts always drove him to do things he might normally deem "dangerous." Surely he knew what I was planning. But yet he stayed near temptation just to get a glimpse into my mind.

Edward growled slightly at my choice of words. "What part of what's mine is yours did you miss in our vows, Bella? It's our swimming pool."

Oops. That was not the reaction I was hoping for. "Sorry. I was speaking in the past tense. Of course I know it belongs to me as well as our family now." I bit my lip in embarrassment at my slip up. I did in fact love being Edward's wife now—even though my title had been changed for a very short amount of time—and I hated myself for making him think otherwise.

I gasped slightly at the new look on Edward's face. Who would have ever thought that an immortal would look tired? I would have questioned him about it, but he unknowingly answered it himself. "Must you torture me in every way? Bella, what were you getting at before?"

I was suddenly overwhelmed with an intense feeling of guilt. Wasn't it bad enough that the smell of my blood literally caused him pain? I drove him insane with not knowing my thoughts; I constantly put myself in danger much to his dismay. I had pursued someone else… How could I bare to manipulate him this way? He'd done way more than make good on his promise. And I would just have to be satisfied with that.

Then again, if the lusty look Edward had given me when he said "every" was any indication, he wanted me as much as I wanted him. He was just bereft at the thought of hurting me again. If only he could see I hadn't been hurt! I'd asked him to hold me closer. I'd been on a mission to be as close to him as humanly possible. I wanted to, literally, become a part of him. And we'd gotten there. It was just my traitorous-easy-bruising-skin that marred the perfection. Edward had spent too much of his life denying himself his needs. And we needed to be together this way. I wouldn't let his martyring get in the way. I'd already turned him into much of a martyr in other ways.

"Do you remember the way the chlorine reacted to my already curly hair?" My voice rang with conviction.

Edward smiled my favorite crooked smile of his, and I knew that this was going to work. "The chlorine made every curl stiffen and appear to shorten. It looked like you had seventies' hair. You were so cute, Bella!"

I blushed scarlet while simultaneously rolling my eyes at him. "I'm sure my tangles would make any guy melt. Anyway, what happened after that?"

His smile was instantly gone. "You hurt yourself by trying to brush all the chlorine out of your hair." He crossed his arms in defiance. "You wouldn't let me help you." I was about to say something but he quickly interrupted. "I understand your hate of being taken care of, Bella. But do you know how much that hurt me to watch that? I had better sight than you. I could control my strength better. I could have saved you all of that pain-"

I cut him off by placing a finger to his lips. "I'm going to let you help me this time, Edward."

It was a losing battle of his to try and hide the glee on his face. "Why now? What makes this time different?" He questioned.

Try as I might I couldn't stop myself from giving my cover away. "You're my husband now, Edward. What's mine is yours remember? You have certain husbandly duties to attend to."

And my brilliant—yet sometimes obtuse—husband finally caught on. "You get your shower and I'll brush the feather and tangles out as soon as you get out." I wonder if his defense sounded as weightless to him as it did to me.

I grabbed onto his arm to keep him from bolting, but it was unnecessary. He made no efforts to move away. "You know how fast my hair dries, Edward. Even as soon as I get out, the feathers will begin to cake in through the humidity. You're just going to have to pluck the feathers out of my hair while we're in the shower. Then when we get out you can brush my hair for as long as you'd like."

I knew I was appealing to one of his fantasies. Edward had expressed many times his desire to brush my hair; I had always been such a brat to refuse him. I wondered what his wife's conceit would do to his control now. He shook his head to dispel the fantasy. "I highly doubt that plucking feathers out of your soaked hair will be something you can't do, Bella."

No one but me would have noticed the waver in his voice. I aimed to close this deal. "Can you really guarantee that, Edward? I'm a danger magnet remember? And I think we've discovered how sensitive every part of my body is."

Thankfully he didn't hear the hidden innuendo in that last sentence. No he was too busy thinking things over. "I will honor your request, Bella. But only because of the hell I went through when we came back from Phoenix and Alice—who was not as adept as handling you as I was—had to help you in the shower. If I weren't a vampire my hair would have been forever gray thinking of the injuries you could have gotten." Any glee I would have felt at Edward's agreement met a violent death when he added; "We'll be wearing clothes in the shower."

"Edward that's ridiculous. It'll just ruin whatever I was going to wea-"

"I know Alice packed you enough clothes to last extended time here, despite what might happen to one outfit; if you must, you can get another shower later. But we're wearing clothes."

I might have argued the point further, but Edward's face at his last words had shown that he truly was a vampire. He looked downright scary. I knew he'd never hurt me, but I didn't want to push his buttons anymore than I already had.

I left the room and opened what I might consider Pandora's box. A.K.A The luggage that Alice had packed for me. And despite feeling instant dread, I found solace in one thought: the wedding dress must not have been the only thing that Alice had hidden from Edward. If he'd had any idea the kind of clothes she'd packed he never would have agreed to an out like this. Though the scary bikinis and lingerie would have better fit my mission, I thought it best not to scare Edward. I settled on a pale pink halter top/belly shirt and some short shorts. If I was going to break Edward's control I would have to show some skin. I just fervently hoped that Alice hadn't foreseen the outcome of this situation.

As I reentered the bathroom I thanked every God I knew of that Edward was not wearing a shirt. Part of me was jealous that he was allowed to torture me when I couldn't torture him, but I kept that thought to myself.

Edward raised one eyebrow at my choice of clothes, but otherwise remained stoic. "What? It's not like I'm ever going to want to wear these again. They seemed the best choice to risk water damage," I said.

"Sensible." And there he was smiling my favorite crooked smile again. It wasn't doing much to dwell my hormones. And if his Kaki shorts weren't in the way I might have jumped him. "Are you trying to rival the pack now, Shirtless Joe?"

"For whatever reason Alice didn't pack me nearly as many clothes as you. I shouldn't risk ruining any from the few shirts she gave me."

"Oh." Was the stupid response that came out of my mouth. I should have known my perfect gentleman wouldn't try to torture me.

Edward smiled sympathetically and I smiled a little bit in response. "Shall we?" He asked extending his hand towards me. I really smiled at that transgression. Even being against this, when Edward had seen my nervousness, he'd been loving enough to take the initiative.

His love was all I'd ever need. I smiled my own award-winning smile and took his hand.

He opened the shower door for me and allowed me in first. He never once let go of my hand, even as he walked in.

To say the shower was nice would be an understatement. I'd had the benefit of hearing Edward gulp when my clothes started to get wet (if I wouldn't have felt so satisfied about that, I probably would have reacted the same way to seeing his sticking pants). And the feel of him washing (and plucking feathers out of) my hair so expertly was indeed nice. But him standing so closely behind me, and giving me even this kind of pleasure was making my body cry out for him.

I'd like to say that it was a ploy when I got shampoo in my eyes. But really it was more of my clumsiness. Edward (being Edward) had noticed my discomfort immediately and had turned me around to face him. It would have been the perfect time to kiss him if my eyes hadn't been stinging so much. Edward quickly got some cold water in my eyes and soon they were good as new. When I could properly see him again, I noticed he looked chagrin. "Please tell me you didn't do that on purpose."

"No." But that wasn't to say that I wouldn't try something to get my gorgeous husband to make love to me. Right now.

Edward searched my face for a second, probably trying to see if I was being honest or not, before he chuckled and said, "Good. I spend enough time worrying about what may happen to you. If I had to worry about any self-induced accidents I'd never get any sleep." I laughed at that and then we were both laughing together. "Are we done here?"

Were we? I really didn't want to be. I just needed more time… "I need to shave my legs." Yes, if I was going to seduce my husband that was a must. Why did leg hair always have to grow back so fast? And that gave me an idea. "Edward can you hand me that razor?" Edward—who had still been standing in front of me—went back to being behind me so he could grab the razor from outside the shower door. I'd be lying if I said I didn't panic. Had that been a mistake? Had he regained his control? If this was going to work he needed to be facing me…

Alas my fears were void. As soon as he'd grabbed the razor he'd sped back to where he had been and handed me what could be used for self-induced injury. I sat down on the shower floor (thankful now that Alice had packed me these short shorts) and began work shaving my left leg. I was being careless about it and Edward took the razor away before I could even blink. "If you keep that up you're going to cut yourself," he scolded. "I don't think you need to shave your legs yet, anyway."

I didn't have to be the mind reader to know that he wasn't going to give the razor back to me. I stepped behind him and headed towards the shower door to go get another razor. But his arms kept me from getting far. "We're going to let the one with the two medical degrees keep you from further injury." He led me back to where I had been sitting a moment ago. I was about to sit down again, but he halted me. "It'll be easier if you remain standing." I might have remained standing, but Edward didn't. He kneeled down in front of me and my mind quickly became X rated. Who ever thought that Edward shaving my legs could be so sensual? I bit my cheek to stop myself from letting out a moan.

So lost was I that I didn't even notice that Edward had stopped when he'd gotten close to my inner thigh. "You smell so good." He almost purred.

Ah, the Femora artery. Surely he could smell my blood quite easily there. I was a little miffed that it was my blood and not me that would break his control, but I'd take what I could get. He quickly placed a kiss there and started running his hands up my leg. It was only then—when my panties became dripping wet and not because of the shower water—that I realized it hadn't been my blood he'd been talking about.

"You can smell, um… that?" Despite the fact that I was no longer an innocent, I still couldn't talk about sex to save my life.

Edward laughed against my leg and the vibration was heavenly. But I focused on him. He had laughed; he hadn't bolted yet: this was definitely a good sign. "I've told you that you have no idea what you do to me, love. Do you have any idea how hard it is to refuse you when I can smell your need for me? Especially now in this concentrated space. It's like slow torture."

Any other time I would have been downright embarrassed by this conversation. I would have been blushing scarlet and hiding behind my hair. But right now I was way too aroused. And I couldn't deny this was the first time that Edward had really touched me since last night. If it was because of this conversation, I would drag it out for as long as possible. "I'll only ever be this way for you." My voice came out a lot huskier than I thought I was capable of.

Before I even knew what happened Edward had me pinned against the shower wall. My legs wrapped around his waist of their own accord. "Say it again!" He ordered.

I was slightly confused but complied with his wishes. "I'll only ever be yours, Edward."

"Mine!" He called out before he went to kiss my neck. I wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or to me. But it didn't take a genius to realize the way he was acting was in response to almost losing me to Jacob. We really needed to talk abou-

I was interrupted from my thoughts at the sound of ripping. And I noticed we were both entirely naked. But even in my fogged up mind I noticed that my clothes were all ripped where as his were perfectly in tact. "Hey, Edward?"

"Yes?" He mumbled against my lips.

"I think we just figured out why Alice packed me more clothes than you." He looked up at me and growled again. His eyes were liquid onyx with their want for me. It sent my heart racing. But that was the last conscious thought I had as pleasure ended up clouding every other thought.

Sometime later we were lying in the white room's big bed and Edward was gently stroking my arm. Eventually the shower—that had begun to run cold water—and Edward's cold skin had chilled me. Edward had instantly carried me out of the shower, dried me off with a towel, and placed me under the covers of this bed. But with a little reassurance from me, we had picked up exactly where we left off in the shower.

The second time had been definitely rougher than our first time. But much to my (and especially Edward's) relief, my body didn't carry any new bruises. We'd discovered that it made things easier if I was on top. That way I could control better how much strength Edward was using on me. Man had that been a great decision. Though I would always love and cherish Edward and my first time making love, there was definitely something to be said about this more raw form of sex.

And I instantly recognized it as what it was. Edward had mated with me. The first time he'd been much too worried and careful to let the usual vampire tendencies take over. Alice had told me enough about vampire sex (thankfully without giving any details about her and Jasper or what she might have seen of our Honeymoon) to recognize them for what they were.

"He'll be very possessive and obsessive." She'd told me. I didn't know how big an impact that would be for us. After all, Edward somewhat showed some of those things in our every day life. I'd barely caught what she said after that, but it was insanely glad that I had. "He'll want to bite you," she had said.

I immediately had shaken my head in the negative. "Edward's over the temptation for my blood."

"He is in normal circumstances, but you should still be wary in the heat of the moment. Anyway, that wasn't what I was talking about."

"What then?" I asked confused.

"It's how we lay claim to our mates."

Edward had in fact bitten me. Not in the way Alice had said, and not in the way he would have our first night if the pillows were any indication. Rather he had given me a hickie. That's actually what he'd been doing instead of kissing my neck the first time I thought he had. The intent was still clear though: I was his as he was mine. I'd even bitten his shoulder once though it hadn't done anything to him, but make him more intense with our lovemaking. But I mentally thanked Alice for all she'd told me. And if Edward ever tried to bite me the way he must have almost done our first night… I'd know enough to keep him in check.

Edward's hand suddenly caressing my scalp instead of my arm instantly brought my attention back to the present. "You have such sex hair, Bella. I'd venture your hair's a lot more mussed than it was before we got in the shower."

"Someone's in a good mood Mr. I-don't-sweat-so-I-can't-have-sex-hair."

He chuckled at that and was instantly serious. "I'm in a good moon because of you, Bella. Thank you."

I rolled onto his stomach so I could face him better. Both of my hands rested on his perfect check as his hand—that had been stroking my hair—moved to cup my cheek. His other hand rubbed my bare back gingerly. He saw the questioning look on my face and instantly explained himself. "Thank you for taking the initiative and bringing us both this pleasure. If I let you take control more maybe we'd escape the near Apocalypses." I instantly knew what this was about. He still hated himself for leaving me. For not having believed me when I said I loved him, and that my love was as strong and eternal as his. I was about to broach the subject, but he thankfully moved onto a lighter one. "To think I'd planned to not make love to you for the rest of your human days, and even your first newborn year!" He hid his face behind my hair in mock horror. And despite the theatrics, I knew he actually was horrified at the thought.

"What was it that kept you from holding me less tightly this time?" I ventured. "Besides the different position."

"Honestly, it was your hair." He chuckled. I looked at him disbelievingly and irritated. He held both his hands out palms forward. "Hear me out," he reasoned. "I realized that if I could fix your hair—which is really the most delicate part of your body—without hurting you, I should have no trouble controlling even less of my strength when making love to my mate." He kissed my nose at the last part. He was using a joking tone, but I knew Alice had been absolutely right about the biting thing. I'd never felt more connected to him than when he had given me my hickie, or when I had bit his shoulder. Definitely more proof that I was meant to be a vampire. "In fact," Edward continued. "I think I have even learned to protect our surrounding area with that knew kind of thought."

I took that moment to survey the room. There was nothing new broken. It seemed the only casualties had been my clothes. "Back to the conversation of my hair. It is in fact a mess and I seem to recall you saying I could get another shower." Edward smiled wickedly before swinging me into his arms and racing for the shower again. It seemed Edward had jumped the gun with his earlier statement as the shower door was indeed in pieces.

I expected him to be angry or embarrassed, but I was wrong. "You little minx. If you bite me like that every time we're together I'll have to build Esme a new house here." So that's when he'd destroyed the shower door. Oh my omniscient sister. What would I do without her? I laughed out loud, and Edward followed suit. Soon I would learn the interesting things laughing together would do to Edward and my body when they were connected.


End file.
